Only one of two female Marines remains in the first phase of Marine Corps Special Operations Command training.
According to Marine Corps Times, the female Staff Sergeant who was unable to meet the minimum passing time on a ruck march has failed, although a Corporal is still in the fight to complete the first three-week phase of MARSOC training at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
During phase one, candidates will run up to 12 miles while carrying rucksacks and must also pass swimming trials, aptitude tests, and land navigation.
Those who fail phase one can be given up to three more chances, depending on a variety of factors and needs of the Marines. Those who pass will complete another three-week course before going on to the much more intensive seven-month course known as the Individual Training Course.
The ITC includes a Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) course, as well as small unit tactics, irregular warfare and close quarters combat.
Since Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter’s March lift of the ban on women in male-restricted roles.
However, long before the ban was lifted, MARSOC was considering allowing women to try out, with the MARSOC commander General Joseph Osterman ordering a review in February of last year “to make sure that we’ve got a good objective set of gender-neutral standards.”
In January of this year, MARSOC spokesman Captain Barry Morris said that three women were considering Raider training.
“MARSOC remains committed to sustaining and improving our combat effectiveness through the systematic application of our standards,” Morris said. “With clearly articulated and codified standards, MARSOC will enhance its ability to screen and select the best and most fully qualified Marines to become critical skills operators and special operations officers, increasing the overall combat readiness of our force.”
The news of the female Raider candidate washing out comes on the heels of the news that the remaining female in the Marine Infantry Officer Course was dropped from training for failure to meet the standards.
As of May, the USMC gave the green light to two enlisted females who wanted to join the infantry, one as a rifleman and the other as a machine gunner.
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